Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣

Director of Young Leadership & Education @NewIsraelFund. @cjnvtweets alum. Masters @CMES_UChicago. Bylines @guardian @jdforward @972mag

[Mickey Gitzin @MickeyGitzin]

I would very much like to agree with Haviv, but unfortunately he is wrong. I assume this comes from the difficulty of looking at the situation as it truly is because it is deeply painful. But the language of “complexity” cannot be used to obscure the truth.
Yes, the overall situation is complex, but some things are clear and simple. There is one power from the river to the sea, and that power is Israel. Under Israeli rule, there are citizens and subjects. In practice, there is no real distinction today between Israel governing within its sovereign territory and the Israeli civil system governing the West Bank.
It is also not credible to claim that the political decision to displace Palestinians and expand Jewish presence in the West Bank is driven primarily by security concerns. It reflects a maximalist political and religious ideology that seeks to establish a single state from the river to the sea, at an immense moral cost.
As Klein argues, acknowledging this does not negate the very real and devastating toll Israel has paid from Hamas and Hezbollah terrorism. But that is not what ultimately drives current policy. The aspiration to control the entire territory predates these events. In this sense, some actors now frame the current moment, especially in the aftermath of October 7, as a kind of “miraculous moment” to advance that long-held vision. Elements within the settler movement and their allies appear to view it as a rare opportunity to push forward the idea of a single state from the river to the sea, one that would be emptied of Palestinians.
And perhaps most importantly: there is no real debate, and no genuine aspiration to change this reality. Today, there is no significant political force within Israeli society that sees control over the West Bank as temporary. It is understood as a permanent condition, backed across the political system. We are living in a moment where even members of the opposition visit and legitimize violent outposts, not only Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, but figures beyond them as well.
And on Lebanon: Israel is facing a deeply troubling security reality vis à vis Hezbollah. But rather than fully exploring the opportunity to work with the Lebanese government, Israel has chosen to act like a bully, devastating entire civilian areas and, at times, targeting individuals who are part of the opposition to Hezbollah. As Bezalel Smotrich himself has said, there are also those who see this as an opportunity to expand Israel’s borders. Haviv, when this is the reality, it is hard to accept security-based explanations at face value. They can explain many things, but not this. Today’s Israel often appears unable to imagine resolving challenges through anything other than overwhelming, indiscriminate force. Civilians are not counted, and even core security interests can become secondary to the need to satisfy the political base, and, for some, the goal of territorial expansion. And in trying to explain this grim reality, you are, in effect, legitimizing it, offering yourself as the acceptable, reasonable face of a system that, in practice, looks very different. These are the facts, unfortunately.
@havivrettiggur @ezraklein

[Mickey Gitzin @MickeyGitzin]

For anyone who still doesn’t understand what this means: this is part of a government policy aimed at the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the West Bank. Full stop. No euphemisms, no question marks. One hand carries out Jewish terror; the other legitimizes illegal outposts deep inside Palestinian communities to drive them out. This is the only answer to anyone who now, or in the future, tries to dismiss it as just ‘a few bad apples

[Harrison Faulkner @Harry__Faulkner]

PM Mark Carney says the U.S.-Israel war against Iran is a failure of the international order.

"The current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order."

"The United States and Israel have acted without engaging the United Nations or consulting allies, including Canada."

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

People can see the devastation inflicted on Gaza w/ their own eyes. If we do not offer a genuinely humanist, anti-racist critique of power, more people will drift toward Tucker’s version of anti-war politics: reactionary, anti-Jewish, and wrapped in America First nationalism /end

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

We need to talk about Tucker Carlson and his recent interview with Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel 🧵

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

If Democrats and mainstream media keep soft-pedaling their criticism and treating Netanyahu and his enablers with kid gloves, they will keep hemorrhaging credibility

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

Noted peacenik Benjamin Netanyahu joins Trump’s Board of Peace 🤦🏻‍♂️ https://t.co/9w46yiwHyQ

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

The US left is criticizing Phase 2 of the Gaza deal as neo-colonial, biased towards Israel.

But Netanyahu's gov't is furious about the makeup of the exec. board. Apparently Bibi has been sidelined (again) by Trump

Who is missing something here? https://t.co/wGM33RE6am

[Breaking the Silence @BtSIsrael]

That’s Khalet a-Sidra, the West Bank, after yesterday’s settler terror attack. Two Palestinians and two activists were hospitalised, one with a minor skull fracture. It’s one of many settler attacks against the village, backed by the IDF and the state.
Footage: Torat Tzedek

[Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין @MairavZ]

Zero Palestinians. Zero Women.

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

…focused on whether/how the US should attack Iran to support the protesters. What about pushing for a diplomatic agreement which (once again) curbs the Iranian nuclear program and allows Iran to rejoin the global economy and materially deliver for its people?

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

“Iran can only fix the economic problems underpinning the public anger if it gets relief from international sanctions” (@WSJ today). That would require a deal on Iran’s nuclear program, like the one that was in place prior to 1st Trump admin (JCPOA). All the discourse has…

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

Calling Zohran Mamdani antisemitic for undoing a speech-policing executive order is cynical and dangerous.

This is the weaponization of antisemitism plain and simple.

The pariah Netanyahu government is desperate for a distraction from its own failures & crimes

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

“We superseded the Monroe doctrine by a lot… by a real lot…” - Trump at today’s press conference

The odds that Trump had ever heard of the Monroe doctrine before now are about the same as the odds that he read a book in the last year

[Zak Witus #SaveMasaferYatta 🟣 @ZakWitus]

Wrong. The call is coming from inside the house. The biggest threat to Jewish safety in 2026 is the Israeli government itself and Israel's perpetual military occupation of Palestinian land. American Jews know it. Don't listen to our communal establishment https://t.co/ukUllYNe0R